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Sunday, October 9, 2016

Croatia’s top airports see record September

Croatia’s three busiest airports, Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik, have registered strong growth during September, with all three handling a record number of passengers.

Zagreb Airport handled 287.664 passengers during the month, an increase of 5.9% compared to last year. The number of aircraft movements stood at 3.862, up 8.1%. During September, Zagreb Airport welcomed its two-millionth traveller of the year. As a result, over the first three quarters it registered 2.127.658 passengers, representing an improvement of 6.7% on the same period in 2015. At the end of October, ČSA Czech Airlines will introduce flights from Zagreb to Skopje, while Croatia Airlines will increase frequencies to Copenhagen. On the other hand, Flydubai and Swiss International Air Lines will suspend their operations to the Croatian capital, while Turkish Airlinest will decrease its frequencies when compared to last year.

Split Airport handled its record two-millionth passenger of the year during September, achieving the milestone for the first time in its history. For the whole of the month the airport welcomed 341.405 travellers and was well ahead of its traditionally busier counterpart in Zagreb. The figure represents growth of 18.5% compared to last year. Split has already overtaken its 2015 end-of-year result and anticipates handling a total of 2.250.000 travellers this year, an increase of 17%. Numbers are expected to continue growing during the winter with Croatia Airlines to boost services from the city to both Munich and Rome. During the first three quarters, the airport saw a record 2.058.833 passengers pass through its doors, an increase of 16.8%.

Dubrovnik also continued its growth trend with the airport handling 305.895 travellers, a notable 20.5% rise in figures. During the month, it overtook its 2015 end-of-year result by welcoming 1.743.972 passengers over the January – September period, an increase of 15.8%. Dubrovnik Airport is gearing up for what is likely to be its busiest winter season on record. Croatia Airlines will extend its summer service to Frankfurt, while Trade Air will continue operating to Rijeka during the winter. Furthermore, Turkish Airlines will maintain its new flights from Istanbul throughout the year. British Airways will continue flying from London Gatwick to Dubrovnik during the winter, however, there will be a partial stoppage in service in November, as well as from mid-January until mid-February. On the other hand, Croatia Airlines will discontinue its flights from Dubrovnik to Rome for the first time since 1994. The route was to be taken over by low cost carrier Vueling, however, no flights have been scheduled so far.

I understand that but it was reported here a few times too that the management wants a link to New York. From what I gathered this will a seasonal 1 weekly flight operated by an EU-based airline (probably some leisure carrier).

Croatia is seeing a real recovery in its economy which means more Zagreb based travel for both business and pleasure. Also, tourism in Zagreb is not as seasonal as the coast and Zagreb is seeing its own decent tourism boom. With Ultra having a Zagreb festival with some reportedly well renowned DJ's over the Christmas NY period as well, than I can see how Zagreb could maintain at least 5% growth through the winter period despite some carriers pulling out.

And those numbers shows that tourism in croatia is mostly by car and not by air. This goes to those guys who wanted to compare as equal by air traffic croatian tourism with let's say tourism in Greece. One month (September) of Athens airport is the hole nine months of Zagreb.

@exyu - information on Aeroflot reducing flights is incorrect. Su has been flying 4pw in winter and 7pw in summer from Moscow to Zagreb for years and years. Nothing has changed there for the upcoming winter.

I predict 3-5% growth in October, November and December despite Turkish reducing number of flights and Swiss leaving till March/April next year.

I think number of flights and seats on offer will remain the same and with 2-3% increase in load factor seen in past few years, things should be ok. Overall Zagreb should handle around 2.75 million this year.

October should be around 250k, November 190k and December 175k. Overall around 2.75 million.

Zagreb has been maintaining a steady tourism growth year round, from 660,000 tourists in 2011. to over a million in 2015. And this year that could easily surpass 1,2 million, especially during the holidays, with Advent being given the title of the best in Europe last year. With cities such as Vienna and Salzburg as competition, that's very impressive. Additionally there'll be more events this December. A significant portion of those tourists actually do fly to Zagreb, especially with the increase of Asians, North Americans, Brits and Scandinavians. Also, hardly anyone will drive, or travel by bus to Zagreb from Holland, Belgium, Italy, or even Germany and Czech Republic in winter. Maybe Slovenia, Bosnia Austria and Hungary. I had expected 2,7 million pax this year, but at this point, I agree...2,75 mill is pretty much guaranteed.

For those who asked about the Russians, the reason is that since we entered the EU, the Russians unfortunately need visas now for Croatia. I suspect that to be the main reason for lowered interest on their part for Zagreb, as opposed to some other destinations in the region.

I am sorry but out of the top ex-Yu 5 airports, 3 are in Hrvatska. No hard feelings but this will likely continue. It´s not a matter of comparing dick sizes. Besides, BEG will most likely remain number 1 but the Croatian latter are doing great. Congrats.

Absolutely true, Belgrade will remain the busiest airport in Ex-Yu, no doubt about it! But Croatia is also doing a great job, considering the state of its economy, lousy national carrier and bad decisions made by our politicians! Congrats to Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik, but also to other Ex-Yu airports for (so far) great first nine months of 2016! Hope for even better 2017!

Yes you need an ID and thats all, but you can bring more stuff with you if you travel within the EU, more bottles wine and local products an you can bring more cash money with you without any declaretion

Serbian passport holders need a passport and proof of income and reason of travel to any EU destination.

Croatian ID is sufficient for travel with in the EU, and Croatians can work in much of the EU and don't need a proof of income to travel. UK, Netherlands and Slovenia still maintain moratorium on labour market access.

Although most Croats if they go to work in the EU move to Scandinavia and Germany.

Some go to Austria, France and Italy too.

So when you try to equate Croatian passport holders with Serbia, please beware of these factors. And yes the EU played a significant boost to Croatians going overseas, most Croatian's aren't used to flying, most still prefer to use buses, trains and cars to get around, but habits are slowly changing. The EU membership helped in that trend.

3. You are sure that you will not be scam because you are protected by law in all EU, that is if someone scams you in Croatia you can have legal procedure from your resident country.

4. Much easier to bring business, for instance you can have Italian plate car in Croatian rent’a’car. Same thing with boat, plane…

5. Can have property in Croatia almost without limitation. That is why lot of Germans, Hungarians, French… have houses or even small apartment business in Croatia. For sure that brings more people here (if they have property here they will come again)

6. Standard is EU (quality of food, service, legal procedures, security, health…) what is very important for tourist, especially from EU, Japan, USA, South Korea, Canada, Australia…

7. Image, when you are EU country people will rather go there than to some “banana” country (you must understand that most EU citisens think like that).

8. Much easier to travel, especially for groups. For instance when I travel with my troop to Romania I go via Hungary, not to leave EU, because I don’t want to make all that paperwork (ata carnet etc) just to transit Serbia. So, I will do 200-300 more kilometers not to have administration problems.

9. Easier for tourist and bus companies that are from EU to organize tripe. For example you can have driver from Croatia to drive your Polish bus inside Croatia. You can not have that in Serbia or Montenegro.

10. You have tax benefits as company or even private person in Croatia if you are from EU.

What is happening with Osijek airport? Any new flights on the horizon? We heard here before that Ryanair is considering Dublin service, but nothing is happening. They will fly to London this winter for the first time. I'm wondering if they will fill those flights.

They came really close to it and they had the support of the airport and the city but they decided against it since the market wasn't as big as they hoped. Maybe they will come back with some German flight.

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